A new sports tradition

The history of high school lacrosse in Minnesota is not very long. Its history in Owatonna is even shorter. 
Yet, what ten years ago was largely an unknown sport has turned into one of the fastest growing sports in Minnesota. In 2004, there were only about 500 high school lacrosse players in the state. Today, there are over 5000.
Beginning
When Owatonna lacrosse Coach Scott Seykora came to teach at his alma mater in 2003, he had no intention of heading up the fastest growing sport Owatonna had seen in years.
“I played lacrosse in college over at Mankato (Mankato State University),” said Seykora. “I started teaching here in 2003, and a couple of guys who knew I played were like, ‘This is something we’re interested in. Would you think about coaching us and see if we can get this going?’ It started with 20 kids that first year in 2004. We had 18 boys and two girls.”
Sitting shy of the 40-plus athletes needed for a full team in the Minnesota State High School League, Seykora’s team found JV teams in the state for his small club team to play. Since Owatonna is one of the only schools in the area with a lacrosse team, they often have to travel across some distance to find competition.
“We go all over,” said Seykora, adding that the map of games stretches from St. Coud to Duluth.
“I think we maybe played seven games that year,” said Seykora.
Seven games were enough. The sport took off instantly, and now the school has over 250 participants, and is offering the sport to students as young as first grade.
“We kind of started from the top down,” said Seykora. “We just started adding teams to younger levels.”
Attraction
According to Seykora and lacrosse players, there are many things that have made the sport so attractive to Owatonna students.
“It’s very fast-paced,” said Seykora. “You can either run with the ball or you can pass it 50 yards downfield. It’s very quick transition.”
Players also added the fact that it has the feel of hockey, soccer and football combined, taking the best parts from each of them. Seykora added that, unlike soccer, there is usually lots of scoring, something that deters many from the former sport. Also unlike soccer, is the physicality.
“For the most part, it’s kids that like the physicality,” said Seykora. “You run around with sticks and helmets (throwing) a hard ball. You have to have a little different mentality.”
Captain Austin Abbass agreed, saying that a good portion of his love for the sport is that he gets to “hit people.” Abbass also wrestles and plays football for Owatonna.
However, the sport also involves agility, hand-eye coordination and lots of running. Seykora pointed out that many of his mid-fielders, those who have to run the entire length of the field, are cross-country runners.
“Cross-country helps me stay conditioned for mid-field,” said Seth Huseby. Huseby quit lacrosse in seventh grade to run track, but missing lacrosse, came back to the sport.
“It’s just really fun,” said Huseby. “Even if we lose, it’s fun no matter what.”
One of Seykora’s only concerns when establishing the new sport was competition between Owatonna sports.
“I was a big baseball guy,” said Seykora. “So I got concerned about that. I don’t want to draw from other sports. I want to see everyone succeed here in Owatonna. For the most part, not a lot of them did play baseball. We get some kids that maybe did junior high baseball, but its not a lot. Talking with the baseball coach, the numbers there are good too. We have enough atheltes in Owatonna to go around, so we’re not too worried about that.”
Both the boys and girls teams have seen improvement on the field over the past five years. Though the boys have mostly fought to reach a .500 record, the girls have successfully stayed above .500, and last year boasted a 10-3 record.
For those who have yet to see a lacrosse game, the boys will next host Hastings on Saturday, April 18, at 7:30 p.m. The girls will host Northfield the same day at 3 p.m.